PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Helicopter crash off the coast of Newfoundland - 18 aboard, March 2009
Old 7th May 2010, 21:17
  #593 (permalink)  
maxwelg2
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: St. John's, Newfoundland
Age: 54
Posts: 178
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Yep, lots of historical issues with the Super Puma fleet, some as yet not fully answered, but lots of incident-free flying hours to reduce risk via the law of averages.

From a statistical perspective the S92 doesn't even come near the Super Pumas. That's the key difference right now that only time and further design improvements will change that.

From a personal PAX perspective the S92 shakes badly, especially when icing occurs faster than the RIPS can handle, and has so much bad press that it will never be a preferred helo by PAX. Remember what happened to the Chinook back in the early North Sea days, they didn't last long in offshore use...

Just because we PAX fly in the S92 doesn't mean that we actually like them. Consider it a tolerated condition right now with heavy dependence on the pilots and maintenance teams.

Safe flying

Max
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